Leading in Uncertainty. Understatement of the century.
Do you think that the pandemic would have stopped any uncertainty in our lives? It wouldn't. But it certainly added to it. 2020 will definitely be a year that ensured that we all knew the true meaning of the word "uncertainty." I hope that we are also able to begin to recognise how we manage uncertainty in ways that do not consume us or inhibit our ability to move forward. "Paralysis by analysis" is the phrase that comes to mind.
I started that year as an employed person and ended it as a self-employed person. I had been employed for twenty-nine years in the same sector — education — with a couple of intentional breaks. So this transition meant learning to operate without the structures, timetables, and accountability frameworks that had defined my professional life.
What I discovered is that uncertainty, managed well, is not the absence of direction. It is the presence of a different kind of discipline.
The discipline of deciding what you will hold onto and what you will let go of.
The discipline of acting on incomplete information — because waiting for certainty is not a neutral choice.
The discipline of staying in relationship with people and purpose even when the path is not clear.
Leading in uncertainty does not mean projecting false confidence. It means being honest about what you don't know while remaining clear about what you value and where you are headed.
It means communicating often — not because you have all the answers, but because silence in uncertain times is not neutral either. Silence gets filled. Usually with fear.
It means maintaining your own steadiness not by pretending things are fine, but by doing the inner work that allows you to be present even when things are not.
One of the things I have noticed, working with leaders across different sectors, is that the ones who navigate uncertainty best are not the ones who are never afraid. They are the ones who have built enough self-knowledge to know how they respond when they are afraid — and who have enough self-discipline to choose their response, rather than just react.
That is a learnable skill. It requires reflection, feedback, and practice. But it is learnable.
If you are leading in uncertain times — and who isn't — I would encourage you to resist the pull toward performing certainty. Your teams are more resilient than you think. What they need from you is not the pretence that you have all the answers. It is the evidence that you are capable of leading them through what you don't.
